La Liga’s title race went to the last seconds of the season, as the winning manager had always said it would
When at last it was all over Diego Simeone let everyone in on a little secret. With four or five games to go and Atlético Madrid on edge, anxiety gripping and their pursuers closing in, he got together the physios, staff and the people on the gates at the Metropolitano and Cerro del Espino – the first faces the players see every day – and told them to change. “From now on,” he said, “instead of saying ‘good morning’, we greet them with: ‘We’re going to be champions.’” So they did and they were, the club’s 11th league title celebrated in a car park in Valladolid on Saturday night.
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